The Top 10 Challenges to CRM Success and How to Avoid Them – Part 2
– By Rachel Fields and Chris Fritsch
In our previous post, The Top 10 Challenges to CRM Success and How to Avoid Them – Part 1, we discussed the five challenges that are most often encountered when implementing a CRM. Here are five more that we typically see – along with some best practices and solutions for success:
6. Resources
Successful CRM implementations are not quick, easy or cheap. This is the reason they are also not common. Failure to dedicate adequate resources – including time,
The Top 10 Challenges to CRM Success and How to Avoid Them – Part 1
– By Rachel Fields and Chris Fritsch
There are a number of issues and challenges that can occur when implementing a CRM that prevent CRM Success. In fact, research from leading industry experts has suggested that up to 70% of CRM implementations may fail to meet expectations. The good news is that CRM Success Is possible – if you can identify potential challenges early and are prepared with solutions.
Based on almost 12 years of consulting experience gained while working together with hundreds of Clients on successful CRM implementations, here are some of the biggest potential challenges we typically see – along with some best practices and solutions for success:
Manage CRM Expectations To Avoid Epic CRM ‘Fails’
by Chris Fritsch, CRM Success Consultant
It’s no secret that CRM system implementations can be complex and often problematic – and, as a result, they often have notoriously high failure rates. In fact, research from industry experts indicates that up to 70 percent of CRM implementations may fail to meet expectations.
In helping hundreds of Clients with their CRM implementations over the last 12 years, we’ve observed many of the most common problems – and even a few unique ones. But the one reason that CRM commonly fails to meet expectations actually has very little to do with the CRM technology: it’s that the expectations for CRM success are often wrong.
CRM Integration Options That Add Value
– By Chris Fritsch, CRM Success Consultant
There are plenty of benefits to be gained by integrating systems with CRM, as we discussed in our last post, “The Benefits of CRM Integration.” So, what are some of the more beneficial CRM integrations when it comes to legal marketing technology? Here are a few:
- eMarketing Data: The value of a CRM system can almost always be enhanced by the integration of an eMarketing system. This can be extremely beneficial to bring in analytics and potential business development activities gathered from email campaigns and events.
The Benefits of CRM Integrations
– By Chris Fritsch, CRM Success Consultant
Even though the entire law firm business model is built around forging long-term relationships and connections, there probably is no other industry with more disconnected systems and data. Legal marketing professionals and technologists are constantly struggling with the challenges caused by juggling so many disconnected systems including: CRM and ERM, eMarketing systems and blogs, websites, intranets and portals, experience databases, proposal generators, social listening and competitive intelligence tools and more. And don’t even get me started on the spreadsheets. All of this can lead to a significant number of people and processes issues.
Six Tips to Select the Right CRM System
by Chris Fritsch, Client Success Consultant
Research estimates that up to 63% of CRM systems fail to meet expectations – and a failed CRM implementation can be extremely costly, not just in terms of the financial expense, but also because of the costs in lost time – and credibility. Even more impactful: you don’t often get a second chance at CRM success. This means that it’s critical to select the right CRM system.
The good news is, CRM success is possible. If you simply follow a few critical steps before and during the CRM selection process,
Garbage In/Garbage Out – Digging Your Way Out
by Desirae Szloboda, CLIENTSFirst Salesforce Success Consultant
Since it was first coined in the world of computer science in the 1950s, the phrase “garbage in, garbage out” has been a popular metaphor for flawed, or nonsense data input that produces flawed or nonsense output, aka “garbage.”
For those of us who are old enough to remember when the term was thrown around by computer salespeople or a firm’s resident technology geek, you may also recall what data management was like before before the days of Windows or Mac OS X. Picture black screens filled with green or orange text and a flashing cursor,
The Season for Holiday Joy Starts Now
by Dave Whiteside, Director, Client Growth & Success and Raquel Lewis, Client Success Consultant
At the risk of sounding like a bunch of Scrooges, we’re going to bring up the annual project that almost all law firm marketers have to deal with – and pretty much any of them dread: The Annual Holiday Mailing Project.
Whether your firm does them electronically or with paper cards (or if you are at one of the really lucky firms, both), so many things go into this annual effort that is ideally aimed at strengthening Client relationships: from decisions around the format to the design,
eMarketing and CRM Systems: Can We Talk?
by Rachel Fields, Client Success Consultant
More often than not, when firms first embark on implementing CRM, their primary motivation is to be able to have centralized mailing lists so they can send their clients and prospects newsletters, other thought leadership pieces and/or event invitations. Significant effort and expense goes into choosing and implementing the right CRM system, but meanwhile the delivery system – the eMarketing system – frequently gets the short end of the resource stick.
Firms often skimp on eMarketing to make up for the cost of CRM and choose less expensive options that will not integrate with their CRM system.
Recognizing the Quiet Power of Your CRM Data
by Julie Amos, Chief Strategy Officer and Chris Fritsch, Client Success Consultant
Marketing departments today often spend a great deal of their time focusing on things that involve strategies and planning. To support these critical activities, they have built up and aligned key staff and resources. This is completely understandable given the pressure they are under to deliver results and value. While the pressure has always been significant, in recent years, with competition at unimaginable levels, it has intensified significantly.
However, it may actually surprise many marketers to discover that one of the most important tools to help their firms deliver value and develop business isn’t a strategic or planning initiative.
Getting to the Heart of eMarketing
by Julie Amos, Chief Strategy Officer
Recently, legal marketing professionals from around the globe gathered in New Orleans for the 2018 Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference. One breakout session titled, “Humanity Isn’t a Trend – It’s the Key to Digital Marketing and Branding Success,” presented by Terry Isner, CEO at Jaffe, was an insightful directive for legal marketers to “remember that, regardless of technology, there is always a person on the other end looking for something … most likely your lawyers’ help.”
Terry’s presentation provided a timely and targeted reminder that no matter the medium,
Effective eMarketing – Don’t be Content with Subpar Content
by Rachel Fields, Client Success Consultant
In previous posts, we addressed best practices for eMarketing and email design as well as internal processes for creating good email communications. If it seems that you’re doing everything right and your email metrics are still disappointing, what’s left to improve? Well, let’s look the 10,000-pound elephant in the room squarely in the eye: your content.
For law firms, the content is typically written by the lawyers. This can be… well, a bit challenging, because many lawyers are legal writers,
Effective eMarketing – Processes & Procedures for Efficient Email Campaigns
by Rachel Fields, Client Success Consultant
Why is it so hard for Marketing to get an email communication out the door in a timely manner? In working together with hundreds of law and other professional services firms over the last 10 years, this is one of the most frequent complaints we hear from Clients.
Law firms collectively spend thousands of hours of billable time creating content, and frequently this information is time-sensitive. In some cases, the firm that gets the information to Clients or prospects first gets hired. But if the information is not sent in a timely manner,
Six Tips to Select the Right CRM System: Evaluate Products and Providers
Once you have identified a few CRM systems that meet your requirements, you can begin the vetting process to select the right CRM system for your firm.
Tip 4: Direct the Demonstrations
It’s essential that the CRM demonstrations allow you to make an informed decision and adequately and accurately compare systems, features and pricing. It’s also important at this phase to again involve your users. CRM systems have a reputation for being notoriously difficult to implement, and the last thing you want is to be responsible for unilaterally selecting a system that then doesn’t meet user expectations.
GDPR and CASL: Why Data Privacy Rules Are Good for Data Quality
by Rachel Fields, Client Success Consultant
For professional services firms, compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) can feel like a thankless burden. Without a doubt, data privacy regulations are forcing most organizations to change the way that data is handled in their CRM systems. But it’s not all bad news. In fact, there are benefits to be had from these process changes other than just the relief of knowing you are compliant with the regulations.
The GDPR requirement of recording of express consent from contacts before sending them a newsletter or an event invitation may seem initially seem harsh,